Story 240 - Concerning the Prince with his Life in his Sword

IN a certain country there was a King. There were seven Princes for the King. Having instructed the whole seven, the King tried to fit them [for their position]. The party without wanting to do anything whatever passed the days in amusement.

The King thought when he looked [at their idleness],

“From this party of seven persons there is not an advantage,”

and having punished (dada gahala) the whole seven,

“Go to any kingdom you can; don’t stay in this country,”

he said.

The seven persons speaking [together] said,

“Our father the King told us to go !”

and the whole of them went.

Out of them, the eldest Prince, took six flower seeds.

The whole seven having arrived at a kingdom, to the youngest Prince the eldest Prince said,

“Getting any livelihood you can, remain in this country. At the place where you stay plant this flower seed for yourself. It having sprouted, when the flower tree has grown, on the tree a flower will blossom. At the time when the flower has faded come seeking me.”

Having told him thus he made the Prince stay in that country.

In that very way he made the other five stay in five countries. Having given to those persons five flower seeds, he told them [about them] in the very way he told that Prince.

To the last country the eldest Prince went. When he was living in that country doing cultivation work, one day he went to walk in the midst of the forest. In the midst of the forest there is a house. The Prince saw it. Having gone to that rock house (cave), when he looked a Princess was [there].

He asked the Princess,

“Are you a human daughter, or a Yaksa-daughter ?”

Thereupon the Princess said,

“I am a daughter of a King. Having eaten food at night I went to sleep. That Yaka having brought me, I am in this rock house. I also do not know a path for going away; I stay in fear,”

the Princess said.

Then the Prince asked the Princess,

“Will you come to go with me?”

At that time the Princess having said,

“It is good,”

the two together having bounded off, proceeded to the place where the Prince who went there stays. During the time while these persons are staying there obtaining a livelihood, the Prince’s life is in his sword. Except that his brothers know that his life is in this sword, no other person knows.

The Princess one day went to the river to bathe. While bathing there, three or four hairs of her head in the Princess’s hair knot having become loosened and having floated, went away in the river. When the Prince of the King of that country was bathing lower down in the river, those hairs of her head which went became entangled on the hand of the Prince. When the Prince, having said,

“What is this ?”

was looking, it was a sort of long hairs of the head, hair of the head of gold colour, and about two fathoms’ length.

Having seen this hair, and known that these were the very best, like [those of] a royal Princess, he thought,

“I must seek this Princess,”

and went to the palace. Having taken the hairs of the head he showed them to his father the King. Having shown them he told him to do whatever [was necessary], and seek and give him the Princess to whom this hair of the head belongs.

He published by the notification tom-tom that to a person who, having found, gave her, he will give goods [amounting] to a tusk elephant’s load.

An old woman who stayed near there said,

“I can.”

Having told the old woman to come, the King asked,

“What do you want in order to go to seek the Princess ?”

“I don’t want anything, O Lord; I only want a boat,”

she said. So he gave her a boat.

Having gone to the river taking the boat, the old woman sat in the boat, saying and saying lamentations, and having floated she went up^[1] the river. Having gone in that way, and tied the boat on that side, the old woman went to the place where the Princess possessing that hair, and the Prince, are staying.

When the old woman was going there the Prince was not at home.

To the Princess the old woman said,

“Ane ! Daughter, there is no person to look after me. Assist me for the sake of charity,”

she said. The Princess becoming grieved at it told the old woman to remain.

After a little, the Prince came home.

Having come he asked,

“This mother, a person from where is she ? What came she here for ?”

Thereupon the Princess also [said],

“She came and said,

‘There is no one to give me to eat!’

Because of it, I being alone I said,

‘Remain with me,’”

she said.

While she was [there] in that way, at the time when the Prince was not [there] the old woman said to the Princess,

“You having eaten and drunk, when you are lying down by way of fun ask the Prince, ‘Where is your life ?’”

So the Princess asked the Prince,

“Where is your life ?”

At that time the Prince said,

“My life is in my sword.”

Through the ignorance of the Princess regarding it, she told that old woman that his life is in the sword. Well then, the old woman from that day, having said that it was for putting in the hearth on rainy days, sought for firewood and heaped it up. When the old woman is going to sleep, every day having built a bon-fire she goes to sleep.

One day during the day time, having been [there] at the time when the Prince is not there, she looked where the sword is. Thereupon, at night a rain began.

Having said,

“To-day there is rain,”

she strengthened the bon-fire. After the Princess and the Prince went to sleep she brought the sword and put it in the bon-fire.

Having arisen in the morning, when she looked the Prince having died the Princess began to lament. The old woman also falsely lamented. The two persons having been lamenting and lamenting a little time, the old woman, calling the Princess, went to obtain shelter at another place. Having gone there, and handed over the Princess to the King of that country, taking the presents also, the old woman went home.

At that time the King told the Princess to take that Prince in marriage. Thereupon the Princess said,

“My Prince is now dead only two or three days. Because of it I want time for a month.”

Having found an upper-story house very near there, he sent the Princess to stay in the upper-story house in that street.

Having seen that the flowers of the flower trees of the younger brothers of that Prince had faded, [his brothers] began to seek him. Seeking him, they went to the place where the Prince is dead. Having gone, these six persons together said,

“Where is the sword ?”

and began to seek it. When seeking it, the sword having been in a heap of ashes they took it. Thereafter having taken the sword to the river, they cleaned it; at that time life was [re-]established for that Prince. Then the Prince having arisen spoke to those Princes, and having said,

“Now then, go you to each of the places where you were,”

he did that cultivation work, and remained obtaining a livelihood [thus].

This one got news that that old woman having taken the Princess and given her to the King, received for herself presents and distinctions. At that time sorrow having gone to the Prince he went to seek the Princess. When [he was] going walking in the street in which is the Princess, the Princess saw that this one is going. The Prince did not see her.

At that time the Princess began to write a letter. Having written the letter, the Princess remained in expectation of the time when the Prince is coming. The Prince, through news that she is in that very street, came back. At that time the Princess, having seen that the Prince is coming, taking the letter dropped it [so as] to fall in front of him. The Prince having taken the letter, when he looked at it and read it there was written,

“That old woman who stayed near us having deceived us and having brought and given me to the King, received for herself presents and distinctions. The King said to me that he must marry and give me to the King’s Prince. Thereupon I said, ‘My Prince is not dead a month now.’ Because of it, asking for time for a month, I am staying in another house,”

there was written. “I said so through the thought that I shall obtain my Prince again. In three days more we are going to the church (palliya) to marry. Because of it, having got a horse carriage should you come on that day to the church we can escape and go off,” there was written.

Thereupon the Prince on the day she told him having got a horse carriage also, went near the church in the disguise of a horse-keeper, and halting the carriage, remained [there].

On the wedding day the King, the Prince, the Princess, the whole of the party, went in a horse carriage. The Princess saw that that Prince is staying like the horse-keeper, holding the horse. But when the Princess looking [at him] went into the church, the horse-keeper [Prince] having remained standing, becoming sleepy reclined a little. Then the Prince went to sleep.

That Princess having got married and come, and having ascended into the carriage which the Prince brought, not knowing that the Prince was asleep struck the horse, and making it bound went off as though she flew. The other people who were there, not observing the quarter to which the Princess went, went away. The King and the married Prince after that sought her; they did not meet with her. The sleeping horse-keeper Prince having ascertained that the carriage was not [there], weeping and weeping began to go along the path on which that Princess went.

When the Princess was going in the midst of a forest wilderness, Vaeddas having been there came and watched in order to seize her.

Having watched, they said to the Princess,

“If thou come not with us we will shoot and kill thee.”

Thereupon the Princess asked,

“I can come with one of you. How shall I come with four or five persons ?”

The Vaeddas asked the Princess,

“If so, how is it [to be]?”

Thereupon the Princess says,

“You having been set in line, all at one discharge shoot. Having shot, I will join the person whose arrow should fall far, who came [after] picking up the arrow, and will come [with him],”

she said.

At that time the whole of the party having been fixed in line shot [for the arrows] to go very far. Having shot, all ran for the purpose of bringing the arrows. Thereupon the Princess having struck the horse, driving it off went away without being perceived. The Vaeddas having got the arrows and come, went away without the Princess.

When she was going to that side from the forest wilderness in which are the Vaeddas, the Princess thought that should she go by the carriage she will be unable to escape. So she descended from the carriage to the ground, and having unloosed the horse drove it into the jungle. She rolled the carriage over into the jungle.

The Princess having thrown away the Princess’s dress, dressing like a Hettiya went away. In this manner she went to another kingdom. In that country, establishing shops, there was a rich Hettiya. She approached near him. At that time the shopkeeper Hettiya having become much pleased with the [apparent] Hettiya, told him to remain there. Well then, the shopkeeper Hettiya asked,

“Who art thou ?”

Thereupon the Princess said,

“I am a Hettirala of a country; I came to establish a shop.”

The shopkeeper having heard that word, said,

“If so, let us two trade in partnership.”

Having said [this] he handed over a shop to the Princess resembling a Hettiya. He gave for it suitable servants.

At that time this Princess says,

“I having come to a new country, when establishing a shop have the thought to give a dana (free donation of food), and secondly to establish the shop.”

Thereupon the shopkeeper Hettirala having become pleased, and having said,

“Let us two pay the amount that the cost comes to,”

they gave the dana.

Then that horse-keeper Prince having come, approached there. The Hettirala having seen the horse-keeper gave him alms. The [Princess] Hettirala after the man ate the food put him in a house and told the servants to shut the door.

During that night having given the dana and having finished,

“Whence are you ?”

the new Hettirala asked the horse-keeper.

At that time the horse-keeper said to that Hettirala,

“Ane ! Hettirala, I indeed am a royal Prince. The Princess whom I had married, driving off in the horse-carriage came here. I also having become hungry when coming here [saw that] there was an alms-house. Because of it I came here,”

he said.

The Hettirala, having cast off those clothes and put on clothes in the manner of a Princess, came and asked,

“Am I the Princess ?”

Having said,

“You indeed are my Princess,”

holding her hand he began to weep, The clothes that she wore like the Hettirala that Prince put on. After that, having gone near the shopkeeper Hettirala, they told him completely the things that occurred to these people. This Hettirala having become pleased at it told them to stay at that very shop. The two persons trading at the shop and having become very wealthy, remained at that very city.

Western Province.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

In the MS. the words are ganga-pahalata, ‘down the river,’ an evident mistake, as the hair passed down with the current.